This disclosure relates to online systems, and more specifically to models for presenting sponsored content items to users of an online system, such as a social networking system.
Online services, such as online systems, search engines, news aggregators, Internet shopping services, and content delivery services, have become a popular venue for presenting sponsored content to prospective buyers. Some online services provide their services to users free of charge or charge only minimal fees. To generate revenue, the online services present sponsored content items to users, who may take certain actions based on the presented sponsored content items. Displaying a sponsored content item to a user is referred to herein as an “impression.” Online services often use a scheme that charges fees proportional to the number of times the sponsored content items are displayed to the users, or actions taken by the users in response to viewing the sponsored content items. Actions taken by the users may include, among others, the following: (i) clicking on the sponsored content items, (ii) registration to the sponsored content provider's service or product, and (iii) conclusion of a sale of a service or product.
Some online services have adopted a system that allows multiple sponsored content providers to bid for a content item space. When a sponsored content item is required for a particular content item space, the sponsored content item with the highest bid price is selected and presented in the content item space. Sponsored content providers may use models to determine a bid price based on number of impressions, number of interactions, or expected revenue values. The context in which a sponsored content item is displayed may affect its value to a sponsored content provider and, thus, affect the amount a sponsored content provider is willing to bid for the sponsored content item. The context may include the sponsored content item being displayed to a high-value user that is likely to click-on, purchase, or download a presented item. Accordingly, a sponsored content item is selected for display based on a highest determined bid from among the sponsored content providers.
Sponsored content providers may provide content campaigns that aim to promote “brand awareness” or to obtain a “direct response.” Awareness campaigns increase exposure of a brand to users, which may increase a user's interest in the presented product or service. Awareness campaigns may not require an action from the user and, thus, are typically measured by number of impressions, dwell time of an impression, or number of click-throughs, but may not otherwise solicit a direct response. A sponsored content provider may determine a bid price for an awareness sponsored content item using an impression-based model or certain interaction-based models. Direct response campaigns specifically aim to drive a specific action of a user, such as sales of the presented product or service or interactions with a page leading to a conversion of a user. Direct response campaigns require an action from a user (e.g., registration to or sale of a service or product) and are typically measured and may be priced by the number of conversions. An advertiser may determine a bid price for a direct response sponsored content item using an interaction-based model.
A common strategy in campaigns is to first run an awareness campaign to generate awareness of a product or service, followed by a related direct response campaign to drive interactions to use the increased awareness of the product or service. However, these joint awareness-direct response campaigns are run in an ad-hoc way and without any explicit optimization method between them. In particular, awareness campaigns may be optimized for impressions, clicks, or dwells but have no optimization related to how the awareness campaign will influence the related direct response campaign. Likewise, direct response campaigns are typically optimized without any explicit information about the prior exposure history of users.